Korean War memorial reamed for historical inaccuracies, missing names

Six areas of concern have been identified with the recently dedicated Korean War memorial in Veterans Memorial Park on Yoctangee Parkway: 1. UH-1 Huey medical helicopters didn’t enter production until 1960; 2. F-16 fighter jets didn’t enter production until the early 1970s; 3. Tina Kutschbach, upset that her uncle John E. Kutschbach wasn’t included on the memorial, taped his name and photograph to to the monument after it was dedicated; 4. use of Kevlar combat helmets didn’t begin until the mid-1980s; 5. soldiers wearing Vietnam War era uniforms and weapons; 6. M1 Abrams tank didn’t enter production until 1980. Source: Retired Army Col. Peter Mansoor, chair of military history at the Ohio State University, provided information to the Gazette regarding the images of military equipment shown on the monument.(Photo11: Frank Robertson/Gazette, Frank Robertson/Gazette)Buy Photo

CHILLICOTHE – Ross County’s newest war memorial is being called into question, not only for what appears on the granite monument, but also for what’s said to be missing.

The controversies came to a head this week after the Korean War memorial was unveiled Monday in Veterans Memorial Park on Yoctangee Parkway. In separate complaints, local residents with family ties to the conflict said the memorial is historically inaccurate.

Donald Darby, the son of a Korean War veteran, has identified on the monument at least five images of military equipment produced years – and, in some cases, decades – after the war ended, including a tank that didn’t see action until Operation Desert Storm.

Meanwhile, Tina Kutschbach, whose uncle, John E. Kutschbach, was fatally injured by a grenade in Korea, said she was devastated when she saw that his name and the names of several other local casualties were not included on the memorial among the fallen servicemen from Ross County.

Darby and Kutschbach said the organizers behind the memorial were aware of these errors prior to the memorial’s unveiling, but did not take the necessary actions to correct them. Now, they’re calling for the monument to be replaced by one that more accurately reflects the so-called “Forgotten War” and its toll on local families.

Herman “Jr.” Strausbaugh, a Korean War veteran who was the driving force behind the fundraising effort to build the memorial, has defended the inclusion of only 18 names on the monument. The memorial committee relied on a government list of casualties when deciding which names would appear on the granite footer at the bottom of the memorial. As for the images on the monument that aren’t from the Korean War era, he said he “(doesn’t) see what the big deal is.”

‘Forgotten all over again’

Donald Darby is a former Naval intelligence officer who specialized in photo interpretation, so when he saw a rendering of the memorial’s design in the April 4 edition of the Gazette, the mistakes were glaring, he said.

He quickly spotted a Gulf War-era tank, a Vietnam-era machine gun, F-16 fighter jets that weren’t produced until the early 1970s, Kevlar combat helmets first used by soldiers in the mid-1980s and a Huey medivac helicopter that wasn’t used by the military until several years after the Korean War ended.

The Gazette verified Darby’s claims by providing a high-resolution photo of the memorial to Peter Mansoor, chairman of military history at The Ohio State University. Mansoor agreed those pieces of equipment postdated the Korean War by anywhere from several years to several decades.

Darby said all veterans are brothers in arms, but the ones who fought in Korea “deserve better than pictures from Vietnam and Desert Storm.”

“I think this is a worthy project that should have been done years ago, but if we’re going to do it, let’s do it right,” he said.

It feels as if the “Forgotten War” has been “forgotten all over again,” he said.

Darby said he called Strausbaugh in April to express his concerns with the memorial’s imagery and received assurances that the changes would be made. But by that point, the memorial had already been completed and was being shipped by boat from a manufacturing facility in India to the U.S., said Doug Hayburn, owner of Southern Ohio Monument Company in Chillicothe.

The memorial committee purchased the monument through Southern Ohio Monument Company, which contracted with a Savannah, Georgia-based company for its design and production, Hayburn said.

Since granite is often sourced in India, the company has an imaging operation there as well, Hayburn said. In the case of the Korean War memorial, the imaging was done in India and then the monument was shipped to the U.S., a process that can take up to 120 days for shipping and another 30 days to go through customs, he said.

“The reason they weren’t able to make the changes is because (the memorial) had been made and was already in transit,” Hayburn said.

Hayburn took the design to the memorial committee in October and received approval. The committee members never mentioned any problems with the design and even put it on T-shirts to wear as they were raising money for the memorial, he said.

Strausbaugh said he would be more concerned about the errors if they had upset one of the 30 or so Korean War veterans who were at the unveiling Monday.

“We had all of those veterans down there and not a thing was said about it,” he said.

Stausbaugh said the memorial committee members liked the design when it was brought to them to October.

“They said, ‘Let’s go with this,’” he said. “I’m sure all of the guys on the committee will say, ‘What’s the big deal?’ I don’t see what the big deal is.”

Still, Strausbaugh expects the memorial’s design will continue to be a topic of discussion. He plans to bring it up at the next meeting of the Ross County Veterans Council, which is set for June 11.

‘His name belongs on there’

Tina Kutschbach has been down this road before, fighting for recognition for her uncle, whose status as a Korean War casualty was complicated by the fact he did not die on Korean soil.

Army Pvt. John Kutschbach had only been in Korea for a few days when he was gravely injured by a grenade on July 4, 1953. He was flown to a military hospital in Japan where he died July 15, 1953 – two days shy of his 22nd birthday.

Because Kutschbach died in Japan, he is not included on the Department of Defense’s Korean War casualty list, which was what was used to identify the 18 fallen servicemen from Ross County who are listed at the foot of the new monument.

“He’s listed everywhere else,” Tina Kutschbach said.

Kutschbach pointed to her uncle’s inclusion on a list published by the Ohio Adjutant General’s Department, the online Korean War Project and the Korean War Honor Roll, a searchable database that’s available to visitors to the national Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington. She said she brought this information to Strausbaugh, who assured her several times that her uncle’s name would be included on the monument.

But when Kutschbach and her family attended the unveiling Monday, they discovered his name had not been added.

“My family has suffered enough ... His name belongs on there. He died for that (monument),” she said.

Kutschbach took matters into her own hands after the unveiling, taping to the monument a printout from the Korean War Honor Roll featuring her uncle’s photo and casualty information. But she also emphasized, “this isn’t just a Kutschbach issue; it’s a Ross County issue.”

Also missing from the monument, she said, are five other men who were killed in Korea and one who was deemed missing in action. She said she has done the research to back up her claims.

For his part, Strausbaugh defended the inclusion of only 18 names, saying the memorial committee relied on the Department of Defense list of Korean War casualties among Ohio service members as provided by Ray Pryor, a longtime veterans advocate and member of the Ross County Veterans Council.

Strausbaugh was originally under the impression there were 19 names on the list, which led him to believe Kutschbach’s uncle was No. 19. But after scouring the list, he only found the names that are now engraved on the monument.

“There were 18 – no more, no less ... I went through that (list) six times,” he said.

Pryor did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Strausbaugh said he’s not opposed to adding names to the memorial, “but we need to have verification from the government.”

After the ceremony Monday, Kutschbach shared her frustration with Hal Barker, co-founder of the Korean War Project, a website that’s considered one of the leading resources on the conflict.

Barker wrote in a reply email: “This is so sad. The DOD list for the Army is decades old and only cites the county of enlistment. So it is really not good for memorials. It is only a starting point.”

Frustrated by what she sees as inaction on the part of the memorial committee, Kutschbach is now trying to raise money for a larger piece of granite to accommodate the names of the 24 servicemen she said were killed, fatally injured or missing in action in Korea during the war. A local resident has pledged $3,000 to the effort and a fund has been created at Kingston National Bank.

“To me, it’s so sad that people would be left off of that list,” she said.

Any proposed changes to the memorial would have to be brought to the county veterans council, said Strausbaugh, who’s anticipating it will be part of the discussion June 11. In fact, he’s planning on bringing it up.

“I doubt (any changes) are going to happen unless she has some solid proof,” he said. “I don’t know where she got (the other six names) from.”

Six areas of concern have been identified with the recently dedicated Korean War memorial in Veterans Memorial Park on Yoctangee Parkway:

1.
UH-1 Huey medical helicopters didn’t enter production until 1960;
2.
F-16 fighter jets didn’t enter production until the early 1970s;
3.
Tina Kutschbach, upset that her uncle John E. Kutschbach wasn’t included on the memorial, taped his name and photograph to to the monument after it was dedicated.

4.
use of Kevlar combat helmets didn’t begin until the mid-1980s;

5.
soldiers wearing Vietnam War era uniforms and weapons;

6.
M1 Abrams tank didn’t enter production until 1980. Source: Retired Army Col. Peter Mansoor, chair of military history at the Ohio State University, provided information to the Gazette regarding the images of military equipment shown on the monument.